Article by George Norman

On 22 Apr 2009

Not to be outdone by Google (who has fitted Gmail and even iGoogle with IM capabilities) or Yahoo! (even users of the traditional Yahoo! Mail page can IM directly from their email account), the Windows Live Team has rolled out IM capability to Hotmail by blending it with Windows Live Messenger. And in related IM news, the social networking service Orkut has enhanced its IM functionality by letting users log into Google Talk without having to set up a Gmail account, or use their existing Gmail credetials (if they already have a Gmail account).

As part of Windows Live Wave 3, Microsoft has decided to fit Windows Live Messenger with instant messaging capabilities – and by that I mean you, the Hotmail user, will soon be able to IM your friends via Windows Live Messenger directly from your Hotmail inbox. I used the term “soon” because the feature will be rolled out gradually.


“Yes, you’ve been asking us, and we promised you’d get it soon. Well, the moment you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived: instant messaging from the web is here! Now you can send instant messages from the Windows Live Hotmail and People pages! This means that, even if you’re on a public computer where Windows Live Messenger isn’t installed, you can still send IMs to your Messenger contacts! Customers in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and USA will see this feature for the first time today (as usual, rollout to different individuals is gradual, so if you don’t see it yet, please be patient). This feature rolled out to users in France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the UK last month. Not in your area yet? We will be rolling out web-based Messenger to more locations in the coming months,” explains Windows Live Team member, Antonia.

Moving on to the Google owned social networking service Orkut, users can now sign in and use Google Talk directly from their Orkut account, without having to deal with the Gmail restrictions. Software Engineer Adam Fass explains: “For those of you who didn't have Gmail enabled for your account or use a gmail.com user name, you may have found it odd that Google Talk was not available in Orkut for you. Well, now we are enabling chat for all Orkut accounts, without the Gmail requirement. Any Orkut user will be able to chat on the Google Talk network using their existing email address as their user name! We are in the process of turning it on for everybody, so if you don't see it yet then it's coming soon.”



Tags: Microsoft, Windows Live, Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Google, Orkut

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